Dial Your Next Party Up to "Special"

Irwin Weiner ASID - Jay and I love to host parties. We hope you do, too. If you enjoy interior design and creating a lovely home, then the natural extension of "home love" is to share it with family, friends, and neighbors. Entertaining is an art, and if you don't do it very often, it can be a chore. But if you keep with it, and mix parties for a small group with bashes bringing in a larger crowd, you'll feel right at home being sociable. The slideshow above show scenes from a small dinner party we threw this Christmas Eve. Total attending (including the two of us): 11.

We hand-selecting international dishes for their "yummy" factor and festive colors (the slide show contains a menu), and we began by serving Admiral Russell's Christmas Punch, a big hit and so festive and tasty! I went to a local Walmart and selected holiday ornaments to fill four footed bowls running up and down the table, we added madcap color-changing electric candles in votives, and I bought coordinating fabric and made the tablecloth and napkins (are you impressed?!). And we did fun things we'd never tried before, like using wooden paddles to hand-roll individual balls of butter and printing out our menu and putting it by each place setting on little snowflake placeholders. It was lots of fun! As we approach New Year's Eve, everyone at Design2Share hopes you have an amazing 2013, and your home is filled with the sound of entertaining, good parties, and celebration. (And a big thank-you to the amazing Jana Kolpen for taking the photos in the slideshow.)

 Click here to subscribe to our daily design videos and features.  

Design2Share Holiday Wish List: Passiflore Dinnerware from Gien

Word Association

fresh = passion flowers

everyday earthenware = Passiflore

Passiflore = the perfect table

 Click here to subscribe to our daily design videos and features.  

Holiday Decor Ideas: 3 Hanukkah Table Settings

Irwin Weiner ASID - Having grown up in South Africa, our Jewish celebrations were slightly different than they are here in the United States. We never emphasized Hanukkah, which has become a bit of the Jewish answer to December's Christmas celebration for Christians. But here's my bottom line: holidays are a great reason to gather family and friends together to celebrate, entertain, talk and share, and make memories that will last a lifetime.

And nothing is more memorable than holiday table decor; the right table settings make everyone sit up and take notice. You know when you're at a special meal; the details are all "just so." The first of three Hanukkah table settings I admired (see top two photos) is from Pottery Barn. Their Tree of Life Menorah salad plates play off strong white china for a simple, elegant place setting. I also like the height of the two table bouquets; keep centerpieces either super short or nice and tall to avoid blocking views of the diners sitting across the table from you - there's nothing more annoying than to have to talk over the top of a "jungle."

Above: Williams-Sonoma's Ornamental Jacquard Table Runner makes a soft, yet striking fabric highlight to a Hanukkah table, particularly allowing the lovely wood of this table to show through. If your table is durable and lovely, there's no need to hide it under tablecloths or placemats - but a lovely runner will add a tactile layer to the table that's lovely.

Above: I liked Martha Stewart's crafty take on holiday tables, showing off her silvery DIY Manzanita-Branch Menorah, set off by shimmering blue fabric and three different takes on dinnerware: patterned silver, light blue on light blue, and white with a banded metallic and leaf design.

 Click here to subscribe to our daily design videos and features.   

Great Idea for Recycling Plastic Dinnerware!

Irwin Weiner ASID - Don't you love it when people make something creative and clever? I thanked my lucky stars when I came across the following video featuring the collaboration between recycling artist Sayaka Ganz and kinetic sculptor Jim Merz.

These two creative and clever souls who recycled plastic dinnerware and created kinetic light sculptures, entitled Luminariales 2.

 Click here to subscribe to our daily design videos and features.